Testing Means in a Two-Group Design

1. An LU professor is interested in whether there is a difference between undergraduate students and graduate students in the amount of time spent praying each day. The professor gathers information from random samples of undergraduate and graduate students on the LU campus. The amount of time praying is normally distributed and is measured on an interval/ratio scale.

Graduate Undergraduate
15 9
17 11
10 9
13 6
11 5
17 6

a. What statistical test should be used to analyze the data?

b. Is this a one- or two tailed test?

c. Identify H0 and Ha for this study.

d. Conduct the appropriate analysis. Should H0 be rejected?

2. A teacher wants to investigate whether there is a difference between male and female students in the amount of time they spend studying for statistics. The table below shows the amount of time students spend studying statistics each week. The amounts of time spent studying are normally distributed.

Male Female
27 25
25 29
19 18
10 23
16 20
17 15
15 19

a. What statistical test should be used to analyze the data?

b. Is this a one- or two tailed test?

c. Identify H0 and Ha for this study.

d. Conduct the appropriate analysis. Should H0 be rejected?

3. A researcher is interested in whether listening to music helps or hinders test-performance. To control for differences in cognitive level, this researcher decides to use a within-participants design. He selects a random sample of participants and has them study different material of equal difficulty in both the music and no music conditions. Participants take a 20-item quiz on the material. The table below shows the scores on the quiz. The study is completely counterbalanced to control for order effects. The scores obtained are measured on an interval-ratio scale and are normally distributed.

Music No Music
17 17
16 18
15 17
16 17
18 19
18 18

a. What statistical test should be used to analyze the data?

b. Is this a one- or two tailed test?

c. Identify H0 and Ha for this study.

d. Conduct the appropriate analysis. Should H0 be rejected? What should the researcher conclude?

Solution Summary

The solution provides step by step method for the calculation of testing of hypothesis. Formula for the calculation and Interpretations of the results are also included. Interactive excel sheet is included. The user can edit the inputs and obtain the complete results for a new set of data.